Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Re: [NNSD] Declaration of autonomous states/provinces

December 17, 2009

Dear Bimal Koiralajee

Federalism has already been enshrined in the Interim Constitution and we are bound to restructure Nepal into various provinces and it will be well neigh impossible to not to have federal structure. Therefore, simply saying that “Nepal should not be a federal state” doesn’t solve the problem. Actually this may beget more violence as UCPNM has put its prestige on line for “federal” Nepal.

On the other hand, having been studying the water resource sector in general and Nepal’s water resource sector in particular for quite a while, in my considered opinion, the optimum exploitation of water resource can only be achieved by taking a river basin approach. But this doesn’t seem to be possible in unitary Nepal – not at least from the experience so far. Further, Nepal’s future lies in her water resources and Nepal can easily be metamorphosed by achieving optimum exploitation of it in her own interest.

Therefore, I am of the opinion that we should have 3 provinces based on our three major river systems, viz. Sapta Koshi, Sapta Gandaki and Karnali. I have tentatively called them as follows: Sapta Koshi-Mechi Rajya, Sapta Gandaki Rajya and Karnali-Mahakali Rajya with Kathmandu valley and other minor river systems as federal territory and the capital. I have written an article on the subject which was published in the current issue Urja Nepal. You can peruse the full article at following webpage:

Nepal's basic problem is the state-people interface; federalism is not the drug for such ills. Since interim constitution has clearly spelt out Nepal as a federal state, I do not write anti-current. However, I must say the threats might become unmanageable if we divide this country solely on the basis of ethnicity. There are several considerations to be made before restructuring the state-its geography, resources, local economy, pattern of trade, infrastructures besides ethno-lingual element. If we forget any of these, we may fall into trap of national division. Social coherence should be the virtue of restructuring.

Let's try to bring this agenda from a narrow coterie of politicians and make a national agenda to be discussed and decided by people-at-large.

People are free to express their views.But it seems less likely to move backward as the interim constitution has declared Nepal as a federal state and lot of aspirations have been provoked. Now, the only question is how best the country is divided into states keeping sovereignty, integrity, harmony and inclusion intact.